Forest protection is a high priority

Ireland’s forests are acknowledged as among the healthiest in Europe. As an island we have natural protection, but we also have an open economy – which means we are vulnerable to importing damaging harmful pests and pathogens.

We don’t need reminding of the damage caused by fungal pathogens ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) and sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) in larch species, to realise that in an open global market, our island status may help to minimise threats to our forests, but it does not eliminate them.

Increasing trade and “emerging patterns in trade and greater mobility of larger numbers of people [means] the risk from the introduction of exotic pests is ever present,” maintains Forest Statistics Ireland (FSI) 2024.

The responsibility for safeguarding Ireland’s forests rests with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), which is the country’s national plant protection organisation (NPPO). Within DAFM, the forestry inspectorate implements forestry aspects of the EU Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031 and the related EU Official Controls Regulation 2017/625 – which include monitoring and control programmes for harmful forestry pests.

The forestry inspectorate also oversees the national implementation of the FAO, International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) 15 and Regulation of Wood Packaging Material in International Trade.

Forest protection is a global issue, as these EU and international roles for DAFM illustrate. Tree and forest threats are introduced from a variety of sources, including plant imports and a whole range of wood and wood products including wood chips, sawn wood, packaging material and firewood.

DAFM has organised a number of field days over the past year, which demonstrate the risks facing our forests and also preventative measures and monitoring carried out by DAFM inspectors. The most recent was held in Lough Key Forest Park, in association with the Society of Irish Foresters.

“Ireland’s forest health status overall remains relatively good despite issues in recent years,” said Cathal Ryan during his presentation at Lough Key. He told the gathering that Ireland is a Protected Zone within EU for 14 forestry harmful organisms (Table 1). However, he acknowledged that “there have been serious problems in recent years” not least ash dieback and P. ramorum.

For example, last December DAFM confirmed the finding in Co Clare of the non-European bark beetle, the Monterey pine engraver (Pseudips mexicanus). Other recently detected pests include the oak processionary moth (Thaumetopea processionea) and the ash sawfly (Tomostethus nigritus), which threatens what remains of our ash forests.

On a more positive note, surveys carried out in 2023 (Table 1) discovered no findings of any of the 14 EU priority pests or pests for which Ireland has EU Protected Zone status. DAFM inspectors monitored 390 survey sites where over 210 traps and 340 samples were taken for laboratory analysis.

Nine forest inspectors are working on plant health in DAFM with emphasis on spruce bark beetles in 2024. DAFM established an Import Controls Operations Division to deal with imports since January 2021 through Border Control Posts (BCPs) at Dublin Port, Dublin Airport and Rosslare Europort.

DAFM retains operational responsibility for other points of entry in Cork and Waterford ports and “14 unmanned, remotely serviced BCPs for bulk shipments of wood products”. These are the ports of Greenore, Drogheda, Dundalk, Wicklow, Arklow, New Ross, Youghal Foynes and Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Killybegs, Rushbrooke and Passage West.

Plant health monitoring is not only important for our forests, but it also has repercussions for our timber processing industry.

“This is important for 54 Irish companies that are currently registered in Ireland to produce wood packaging material to the FAO IPPC International Standard for the Regulation of Wood Packaging Material in International Trade (ISPM No. 15), thus facilitating the export of goods worldwide from Ireland on compliant pallets and crates,” according to FSI 24.

Ireland has Protected Zone status for 14 harmful forestry organisms, including six coniferous bark beetles present in other parts of the EU, but not present here. Their absence in Ireland is demonstrated through annual surveys over the last three decades.

As a result, special requirements apply to the movement of coniferous wood into Ireland from EU and third countries, including Britain. Untreated wood with bark attached cannot be imported unless it comes from an officially designated Pest Free Area.

To justify Ireland’s Protected Zone status, the Forestry Inspectorate conducts national forest surveys and submits reports annually to European Commission. These reports are necessary, as the European Commission Delegated Regulation 2022/2404 lays down detailed rules for surveys on Protected Zone pests.

In fulfilment of these requirements and for general forest health monitoring purposes, a network of observation points, pheromone traps, bait logs and sampling points are distributed around the country, in public and private forests, and forest nurseries.

These were demonstrated at the Lough Key field day.

The field day participants learned that there were no detections of any of these organisms in surveys conducted during 2021, 2020 and 2023.